


and they found each other

by hailingstars



Series: unbelievably unlikely (febuwhump 2020) [21]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Adoption, Fluff and Angst, Foster Care, Found Family, Gen, Kid Peter Parker, Orphan Peter Parker, Pre-Iron Man 1, Precious Peter Parker, Roald Dahl References, abandoned, febuwhump 2020, unwanted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:47:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22871989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hailingstars/pseuds/hailingstars
Summary: “What do you like to read then?” asked Tony.“Stories I guess,” said Peter, with a shrug. “Ones where people find each other.”Tony looked at him, with a questioning expression, waiting for him to elaborate.“You know, where people who start out alone find each other, and make their own families.”Sounded like a bunch of fairy tales to Tony, but he didn’t dare say so out loud and steal a bit hope from this boy, who only pretended he didn’t want to be adopted. Tony knew an act when he saw one. He supposed it was easier to chase people away and pretend he didn’t want a family than it was to be crushed when things didn’t work out.Tony couldn’t say he blamed him.ORA pre-Iron Man Tony Stark accidentally finds himself at an adoption fair, and he meets a certain seven-year-old genius who steals his heart and changes his life.febuwhump day 23 + 24: unwanted, abandoned
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: unbelievably unlikely (febuwhump 2020) [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1619662
Comments: 125
Kudos: 1233
Collections: Grays fave Irondad fics, ellie marvel fics - read, god tier spider-man fics





	1. unwanted

**Author's Note:**

> I changed what fic I was going to write for unwanted like a million times, then wrote this on a whim. At first it was going to be a Matilda AU, but I couldn't figure out how to make that work, so instead I'll just say this was very, very loosely based on Matilda, but really more Roald Dahl in general a lot of his kids books have the found family trope us in the irondad community know and love!! 
> 
> hope you enjoy!!

The end of Tony’s world started with Pepper Potts.

He supposed he always knew that’s how it was gonna go down. Pepper, with her intelligence and her wit and her refusal to take any of his bullshit.

She stood in front of where he sat on a park bench, explaining the extricate details of some SI deal he didn’t particularly care about. Tony couldn’t tell you what it was, couldn’t even say he cared enough to try and push through the deadly combination of his hangover headache, the glare of the sun, and the three thousand feral children that had been let loose on the park that day.

“Tony,” said Pepper. Her voice was both sharp enough and annoyed enough to yank him from his post-party stupor. “Are you even listening to me?”

“Of course I am,” said Tony. His eyes followed a pack of children, all wearing red polos, as they ran by screaming. “Uh, Pep, what’s the deal with all the kids?”

“Social Services is holding an adoption fair today,” she told him. “Which I already told you about when you said you wanted to meet at the park and I said it’d probably be bad timing.”

“Oh, well, you were right.”

“Imagine that,” she said, just as her phone started to ring. She took it from her handbag, let out a sigh of frustration as she looked at the caller ID, then directed her annoyed stare at Tony. “I have to take this. Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.”

She marched off towards the pond, leaving Tony in the scorching heat, dealing with his headache, made distinctly worse by all the orphans running around yelling their heads off. Out of a mass of children, one was walking towards him.

All Tony could see of him was a mop of brown curls. His head was pointed down, at the book in his hands, as he slowly approached the bench Tony sat at. The boy sat down, next to Tony, without acknowledging him, without looking at him at all.

“I hope that’s a really good book,” said Tony.

“It is,” said the boy, still without sparing Tony a glance. He flipped a page of his book. “It’s about a girl who reads a lot, and she can move stuff with her mind.”

Tony stared down at him, both appalled and appreciative that this boy, this child, didn’t have a clue who he was talking to and seemed not to care. It was nice, nice in a way Tony didn’t know what to do with, to be spoken to like he was a regular person and not just someone to snap pictures of or shout questions at.

“Uh…” said Tony, trailing off. “… you like to read then?”

“Uh huh,” said the boy. He flipped another page and looked annoyed Tony was interrupting his story.

“What kind of –“

“-Look, Mister,” he said, finally looking up at him with big, brown eyes. “You don’t hafta pretend to get to know me. I’m just sitting here cause most the shoppers –“ He beckoned at a sea of adults, wearing nametags, chasing after children with snacks and refreshments. “-are over there, and they won’t come near me if they think I’m already taken.”

Tony looked back at the adoption fair in front of him. It was a strange sight to see, and one, under different circumstances, would have him calling the police on all these grown adults chasing kids with candy and juice.

“Isn’t the point of these things to get adopted?”

The boy shrugged. “Not for me.”

“Why?”

“Don’t need parents,” he told him. “Besides my mom and dad will come get me soon.”

Tony took his words in with a slow nod. He didn’t have to be a genius to know that wasn’t true. Socials Services wasn’t perfect, but he doubted they put kids with viable parents out on the market like this.

“Fair enough, kid,” said Tony. “I’ll chase them off for you.”

“Thanks.” He beamed up at him.

It was a smile that made Tony question why this boy hadn’t been adopted already. He was still young enough, clearly intelligent, leaving Tony to believe the boy was actively scaring perspective parents away.

The boy – Peter, according to the nametag stuck to his shirt – looked at him again. “Where’s your parents?”

“I don’t have any,” he replied.

“So they’re dead?”

“Yep.”

“Maybe _you_ should get adopted, then,” said Peter. “Maybe by that pretty lady who was over here earlier.”

“I don’t need to be adopted, either, because I, unlike you, _actually_ don’t need parents. I’m an adult.”

“It isn’t right to lie.”

“Kid-“

“-You’re an adult that doesn’t know how to comb his hair?” asked Peter. “Or tie his shoes?” Peter looked rather smug as he shut his book and leaned back against the bench. “I learned how to do that when I was three.”

“I know how to do both those things,” snapped Tony, in a low voice, feeling awfully defensive. “I just had a rough night last night. That alright with you, genius?”

“So that’s why you smell like Mr. Albertson’s liquor cabinet,” said Peter, nodding his head. “It all makes sense now.”

Truly, it all did make sense. Why Peter hadn’t found a family yet, why he’d yet to be adopted, and, not surprisingly, they were all the same reasons Tony found himself oddly charmed.

Pepper walked up to them, and Peter scooted himself off the bench, his book tucked under his arm.

“Are you going to adopt him?” he asked her. “He needs all the help he can get.”

He ran off before she could response, and when she looked at Tony for answers, all he could do was shrug.

“Pep,” he said. “I think I was just roasted by a toddler.”

“He looked a bit older than that,” said Pepper, as though that were obvious. “But otherwise I’d say you’re spot on.”

*

It was just two weeks later when Tony saw Peter for the second time, completely by chance.

Tony didn’t frequent libraries often, or ever, really, but on that stormy, Spring day, he needed a hideout. A place away from the world that was so interested in him, and he couldn’t think of a place better to get lost than a building with rows and rows of dusty, tattered old books.

No one would find him here.

No one except Peter Parker, who sat in an armchair in front of the window on the 5th floor, with a ridiculous large book in his lap.

Tony knew he shouldn’t, knew he should mind his own business and not talk to the kid, but he couldn’t help it. He drawn to him. This orphan who was reading a book about physics that should have been too advanced for him.

“Still haven’t put down the book, huh?” asked Tony.

Peter let out a hefty, annoyed sigh and flipped a page. “I’m guessing you still haven’t combed your hair.”

“Guess again.”

Peter looked up from his book, and Tony saw those big, brown doe eyes again.

_Don’t get attached. Don’t get attached._

“Whoa, congratulations,” said Peter. “You even learned how to tie your shoes.”

“What’cha reading this time, genius?”

“Just a bit about the theory of relativity. It was interesting at first –“ Peter shut the book with a slam. “-but now I’m bored.”

Tony nodded. “Yeah, it’s a kind of hard to grasp for a four-year-old.”

“I’m not four, I’m seven,” said Peter, as if there were a huge age difference, as Tony had just paid him the biggest insult. “And I understand it perfectly, it’s just boring.”

The funny thing was, as defensive as the boy sounded, Tony didn’t doubt he understood what he was reading. He’d been a child prodigy once, and he recognized the stare in Peter’s eye, one that made Tony understand that Peter was quite literally a genius.

An orphan genius.

_Don’t get attached._

“What do you like to read then?” asked Tony.

“Stories I guess,” said Peter, with a shrug. “Ones where people find each other.”

Tony looked at him, with a questioning expression, waiting for him to elaborate.

“You know, where people who start out alone find each other, and make their own families.”

Sounded like a bunch of fairy tales to Tony, but he didn’t dare say so out loud and steal a bit hope from this boy, who only pretended he didn’t want to be adopted. Tony knew an act when he saw one. He supposed it was easier to chase people away and pretend he didn’t want a family than it was to be crushed when things didn’t work out.

Tony couldn’t say he blamed him.

“I like those, too.”

Outside the rain sped up and thunder crackled and just for the briefest of moments, just a flicker of a second, Tony caught Peter looking towards the window, eyes full of fear.

“Maybe you can recommend some to me,” said Tony.

For a second, Peter looked like he was going to refuse, but a bolt of lightning lit up the sky outside the window and a loud rumble of thunder was quick to follow.

“Yeah,” said Peter, slipping out of the chair and leaving the physics book behind. He grabbed Tony’s hand and yanked him towards the escalators. “I’ll show you.”

Peter led him down to the children’s section, holding his hand the entire way, up until they both sat down under a large tent. Peter pulled the top book off a stack Tony could only assume he’d curated.

“This one’s about a boy who has a happy life, until a rhinoceros ate his parents and he had to live with his two aunts,” said Peter. “It turns out okay though, cause he finds a family of insects to take him in…” He looked at him. “… Do you want to read it?”

“Sure, kid.” At this point, Tony couldn’t imagine ever telling him no.

Peter beamed at him and opened the book. “Okay, but I should probably read it to you, since you just learned how to tie your shoes and all.”

Peter started reading from the book before Tony offer any objection. He wouldn’t have, anyway. It was sort of nice, sitting there under the tent, being there for someone he wouldn’t admit he was scared of a storm and listening to the struggles of a boy with a giant peach floating across the ocean.

There was no point in yelling at himself not to get attached once more.

It was too late for that.


	2. abandoned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cdkslajfdsklafj here it is 
> 
> I WANTED to do more with this but I run out of time today cause work was a nightmare 
> 
> hope you guys enjoy anyway!! and thanks so much for putting up with me this month!!

“Pep,” said Tony. “I’m going to need a lawyer.”

Her hand went straight to her temple, and she rubbed it with her fingers. “What have you done?”

“Nothing yet. That’s why I need a lawyer.”

Pepper looked up at him from the desk, from _his_ desk, where she was currently seated, taking on all the work he’d been ignoring in favor of his afternoons at the library with Peter.

“Planning your criminal offenses in advance?” asked Pepper. “At least it’s progress.”

“I was actually thinking more of a custody lawyer,” said Tony. “Someone who can help me with an adoption.”

“An adoption,” Pepper repeated back to him.

Tony wasn’t sure if she hadn’t heard him properly, or if she thought he hadn’t heard himself properly.

Probably, it was a little bit of both, and Tony couldn’t say he blamed her for her confusion. He was even confused, by the past few months, by all his visits to the library just to trade book recommendations with a seven-year-old and ultimately by a decision that both shocked and scared him.

But as much as it terrified him, as much as he knew he didn’t know the first thing about parenting and taking care of a child, he couldn’t let that boy continue to wander around the world, unwanted and unloved and abandoned by society.

He’d wrestled with the decision since the first day in the library, but every day since had made it clearer. The more time he spent with him, the more he didn’t want to let him go, and then, yesterday, when Tony had discovered Peter was lying to him, he knew he had to step in.

“But Mr. Stark,” Peter had told him, panic in his voice. “It isn’t a big deal. I do it all the time.”

“It isn’t safe,” said Tony. He tried to keep his voice from sounding anything like his father’s had. “You may be smart but you’re still seven. You can’t ride the subway by yourself – “

“How else am I gonna get here?” asked Peter. His eyes got teary, normal for a kid his age who got caught in a lie, but not normal for Peter. Most of the time the kid was a closed book. “Who’s gonna drive me?”

The question had lingered in the air and the truth with it. That Tony had been right all along, and Peter pretended not to want the thing Tony guessed he wanted most.

Before Tony had given a reply, Peter’s eyes had gone wide. “Please don’t tell Mr. Albertson! He’ll get angry! He’ll…” Peter had trailed off then.

“He’ll what?” Tony had a feeling he already knew

“Um, he’ll yell a lot.”

Tony seethed with anger and hurt with memories all at the same time. He knew all the code, the secret language. He knew what ‘yelling a lot’ really meant.

“I’m not gonna say anything to him,” Tony had told him, and, after dropping Peter off at his foster home, a place that looked as if it were falling apart from the outside, he watched him disappear into the house, gripping his steering wheel and resolving the conflict in his heart.

He had known then he couldn’t let Peter stay where he was, and he sure as hell couldn’t see him go off anywhere else, couldn’t see the end of their visits together in the library.

“You’re thinking about adopting a child,” said Pepper, bringing Tony back to the present.

“Yes, I know it sounds crazy.”

“More than,” said Pepper. Her voice was softer than her usual disapproval at his antics. “Is that about that boy at the adoption fair a few months back? The toddler? He was adorable, but he’s not a puppy, Tony. You can’t take him back when you get tired of him.”

“I know that.”

He knew it was completely insane. That just a few months ago he spent every night drinking himself to sleep, partying away his life, but things were different now. His head was clear. His drinking was rare, and he owed that to Peter.

A snarky seven-year-old who’d called him out about being a man-child, and who inspired him to be more.

Peter had saved him with a few insults, had been saving him sense with his stories and his brightness. A light Tony didn’t want to see the world smash. A light he couldn’t imagine living without.

Besides, he owed it to him, to give Peter a good home, or at least, as good of one as was capable of providing.

“Look, Pep, I know it’s out of the blue. I know I’m mess, but… I just finally know what I’m supposed to do, and I know in my heart that it’s right.”

Pepper didn’t look as though she believed him. Tony could tell she was trying not to cringe, the way one might when they think they’re about to witness a car crash but are completely unable to prevent it.

“I’ll make some calls,” she told him, because that was Pepper, eventually supportive, even if she didn’t always agree.

*

Pulling a kid out of foster care and adopting them turned out to be a lot more time consuming than Tony wanted it to be.

He just wanted Peter safe, out of that house, and where Tony could make sure he wasn’t riding around of the subway by himself, but there was red tape. There were home checks and background checks and paperwork.

It all went by in a slow blur, and once he was cleared, once all the official stuff was taken care of and he could move forward with adopting Peter at any time, Tony just had one last thing to take care of.

He parked his car outside of the kid’s foster home, took a deep breath, and finally gathered the courage to leave his car and go knock on the front door. A gruffy man answered the door, glared at him, and without saying hello, hollered for Peter to come to the door.

“Mr. Stark,” said Peter, scrunching up his face when he came to the door. “What’re you doing here?” He titled his head at him. “Did you get lost?”

“Funny, but nope, I’m here on purpose.”

“Why would anyone come here on purpose?” asked Peter, genuinely confused.

“For the company,” said Tony. “I need to talk to you.”

Peter looked worried. His eyes darted to the somewhere off to the side, then back at Tony.

“Not about the subway.”

He relaxed his shoulders and let out a breath. “We can talk on the swings… not many people go over there…”

Tony nodded and followed Peter down a stone path to the backyard. It was just as trashed as the front, and Tony wished, hoped, with everything he had that Peter would let him take him out of here.

“So I was thinking,” said Tony, with both his hands on the metal chains that held up the swing. “About when we first met, and you told me I needed all the help I could get. You were right.”

“Well duh,” said Peter. His torn-up tennis was digging around in the dirt under the swings.

“I thought maybe you could help me out,” said Tony, plainly. “Maybe we could help each other.”

Peter stopped fidgeting with his foot and looked Tony straight in the face. “What do you mean?”

“I know you said you didn’t want to be adopted – “

“-you mean come and live with you?”

“Yep.”

Peter frowned and puffed out his chest. “For how long?”

“Until you’re eighteen,” said Tony. “And however long you want to stay after.”

Tony couldn’t read the expression on Peter’s face, couldn’t tell if he was angry or sad or scared, and Tony still couldn’t tell, even when he spoke up.

“Um,” said Peter. “Will you drive me to the library?”

“You can be damn sure you won’t be riding the subway.”

Peter smiled, bright and pure and nothing like any of the other smiles Tony had seen from him before. This smile was absent of the sadness Peter usually carried about with him.

“Hell, I’ll build you your own library if you want.”

“Maybe just a shelf,” said Peter. “With all our favorites on it.”

“Is that a yes?”

Peter nodded. “Yeah.”

“Great, kid,” said Tony. “I’m gonna make it happen.”

They sat together, on the swings, like that for a couple minutes, until it was time for Tony to go and make all the phone calls he needed to make to finalize the adoption. He got to the back gate when he was nearly knocked over by Peter colliding into him from behind, wrapping his arms around him.

“Thanks, Mr. Stark.”

*

As long as it seemed to take to set the adoption into motion, waiting for the day he could go, and pick Peter up seemed to take longer.

Tony kept himself busy.

He fixed up Peter’s room. He painted it and added bookshelves, then filled them with all of their favorites and more.

He bothered Pepper, pacing around and asking her questions.

“What if he gets sick, Pep?”

“Take him to the doctor, Tony,” said Pepper. She kept her eyes on the computer, typing away, doing the work Tony wasn’t due to his pre-parental panic.

“Okay,” said Tony. “What if he has allergies? I forgot to ask. Oh my god, what if he chokes on something? I don’t know the Heimlich – I wonder if there’s – “

“Tony,” said Pepper. “Just breathe. Relax. It’s going to be fine.”

Tony stopped his pacing, and took a deep breathe, just as Pepper had instructed. He world felt a little better, a little bit more still.

“I mean it’s you, so it’ll be messy and chaotic, but I’m sure you’ll make it work somehow.”

*

The day Peter finally got to come home was a sunny day at the end of August.

Peter’s whole life fit into one bad that bounced up and down off his back as he sprinted down the hallway of the Social Services building, as Tony rounded the corner and came into view.

Tony had learned that Peter’s hugs were more like tackles, and despite their snark filled beginning, once the boy was holding on to him, he wouldn’t let go. He was sticky. That was the best way to describe the boy who clawed his way into Tony’s heart with sarcasm and refused to leave.

He wouldn’t let go of Tony’s legs, so he scooped him up into his arms and carried him back to the car, where Happy was waiting for them both.

“Pete,” said Tony. “Meet Happy, mostly he just stands around and looks threatening, but if you ask him nicely, he’ll make you a killer grilled cheese.”

Happy grumbled something about not being a cook and Peter lifted his head from Tony’s shoulder and scrunched up his face. He looked back at Tony.

“Is his name ironic?” he asked. “You know, since he looks grumpy and that’s the opposite of happy.” 

A laugh burst out from Tony, followed by more grumbles from Happy as the two of them got situated in the backseat. Peter carried on with his sassy comments and his semi-rude questions directed towards Happy the entire way home, and Tony found it very doubtful Happy would be cooking for either of them anytime soon.

Or at least, until they pulled into the driveway, and Peter smiled at Happy, and said, “Thanks for the ride, Mr. Happy. You drive loads better than Mr. Stark. I wasn’t scared once.”

*

Tony figured Peter would worship his bookshelves. That he’d go crazy for his brand-new TV and video games, but as always, Peter Parker surprised him.

When Tony showed him his bedroom, he dropped his small bookbag on the floor and his eyes went wide. He made a beeline for the bed, a simple, full sized bed with blue and red bedding. He climbed up on it and started jumping.

“This is all for me?” he asked, and Tony felt like he should tell him to quit jumping around. That he was in no way qualified to deal with a broken arm or leg, but he couldn’t make the words came out.

He couldn’t spoil his excitement and happiness.

He let it go. Just that one time.

“All yours buddy.”

Peter dropped to his butt and let his back fall against the mattress. He stared at the ceiling. “I love it.”

The rest of the evening was blissful.

Tony gave Peter a tour of the penthouse, and they ate a family dinner like the ones Tony had dreamed of when he was a child, filled with laughing and conversation. Tony made sure Peter took a bath, setting out pajamas and showing him how the water and heated towel rack worked.

He tucked him into bed and gave him a kiss on the forehead and everything felt the way Tony had suspected it would after he’d made the decision to adopt him.

Until Tony got under his own covers, until he was almost fully drifted off to sleep, and was pulled back to reality by a persistent poke on his forehead. Tony opened his eyes and saw Peter standing at the side of his bed.

“Mr. Stark.”

Tony blinked.

“I can’t sleep.”

“Sure you can,” said Tony. “You just close your eyes and bam, you’re asleep.”

Even in the darkness, Tony could see Peter’s frown. With a sigh, and with remembering Pepper’s words that being a father wouldn’t be easy, Tony sat up and patted the bed beside him, beckoning for Peter to climb up.

He did and wasn’t shy about stealing most of Tony’s comforter away from him and crawling underneath.

“What’s the matter?” asked Tony. “Why can’t you sleep?”

“I used to share my room with four other boys.”

“And you… miss that?”

“No,” said Peter. “I just – it’s just different.”

Tony nodded. He put his arm around Peter and remembering the way his mother used to get him to sleep, started running his fingers through his hair.

He shifted around under the blanket and rested his head on Tony’s chest, using it as a pillow.

“Mr. Stark,” he said. “We found each other.”

“We did,” said Tony. “Now it’s time for you to find some sleep.”

Peter giggled, and it was only a few minutes after that that he was out cold, and JARVIS was announcing Pepper Potts arrival at the penthouse.

“I thought you’d still be up,” said Pepper, with an apology in her tone, when she walked into his room and saw he was in bed, with Peter fast asleep at his side. “Normally you’re still awake.”

“I’m changing things,” he said. “I have to set a good example and all.”

Pepper nodded, then smiled. “Fatherhood looks good on you.”

“Let’s face it, Pep, everything looks good on me.”

She rolled her eyes but laughed. “I’ll just leave the documents downstairs in your office, but you should know, they finished investigating the Albertsons. They’re fostering license was pulled.”

“Thanks Pepper,” said Tony.

She nodded again and turned to leave.

“Wait… “ he said, and she waited. “Maybe we can get some dinner sometime. It’ll be a…. proper date.”

“Oh?” said Pepper. “But you’re a single father now. Where will Peter go?”

“Happy can babysit. He loves him.”

Pepper smiled. “Okay, you’re on. A proper date.”

She left them and Tony looked down at Peter, marveling at how his life as he knew it had changed and looking forward to the new life they all had together. Truly, they had found each other, and family was sticky. They didn’t let go.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! I hope everyone had great weekends and are feeling good!! 
> 
> kudos and/comments let me know what you think!!


End file.
